


Beneath the Scar

by R_4_L



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Injury, Hiruzen Sarutobi - Freeform, I gave Iruka parents, Iruka Week 2021, Iruka freaking out, Kakashi being a good friend, Mizuki being a traitor, Slight Canon Divergence, new kekkei genkai, wing fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 16:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30058353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_4_L/pseuds/R_4_L
Summary: Iruka gets injured by Mizuki while trying to save Naruto and while he’s healing his new scar catches the eye of Kakashi for a completely different reason.  Scar itch while they heal right? But what if there was something underneath the scar something new?  Iruka may have a rare family kekkei genkai and Kakashi is the first one to find out and help him through it.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14
Collections: Iruka Week 2021





	Beneath the Scar

**Author's Note:**

> First time writing a wing fic and chances are I’ll be coming back to this one to fix it, not quite happy with it.

The pain was almost unbearable, but Iruka was conscious enough to remember that it had been his back that had been hit.

“Mizu..” his voice was weak, but he needed others to know that there was a traitor in the village.

“It’s okay, Umino-San you’re safe.” The voice came from above and all Iruka could see was a pair of white nurses shoes.

The knock on the door allowed another person to enter, Iruka could tell it was a high ranking shinobi by the lack of sound and feel of suppressed chakra which was in itself a clue, but only because of who he was. Shinobi shoes stopped by his head then a face appeared before him as Kakashi knelt to be in his line of vision.

“Iruka, you’re safe now. We got Mizuki contained, he’s at T&I right now.” Before the academy teacher could ask, Kakashi continued knowing where the man’s main concern would lie. “Naruto is safe with the Hokage and is spending the rest of the night with he Sarutobi family. He will not be punished for taking the forbidden the scroll as Mizuki couldn’t stop bragging about what he had done. He believes that he has ended your career as a shinobi, so listens he staff here and don’t prove him right.”

“Thank you Hatake-San.” 

Kakashi watched as the tension in Iruka faded, he had worried that moving the way the teacher had after Mizuki had skewered him in the back with a windmill shuriken had done more damage then anticipated. He hadn’t understood why the man had risked his life to comfort the child until he saw the way Naruto had protected Iruka. Kakashi had subdued Mizuki and then gone back to check on the two of them. Iruka was a Konoha shinobi but he had just been ambushed by a fellow academy teacher and friend. Naruto was the only child of his sensei and the jinchuriki of the nine tails. He wanted to make sure that any ANBU who had been attracted to the fight weren’t overzealous and decided to attack the innocent party. 

“I’ll be back to visit.” Kakashi stood but his gaze went to the large bandage covering the majority of Iruka’s back. There was something that caught his eye about the wound. Outside the hospital room, he pulled aside the nurse who had been helping Iruka.

“Excuse me, but what can you tell me about Iruka’s injury?”

“I’m sorry Hatake-San but that information is reserved for next of kin only.”

“I understand, thank you.” Kakashi gave the nurse a small bow. “Please continue your care of him.” He exited the hospital and made his way to the Hokage tower. 

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up as Kakashi entered his office.

“Kakashi? Is there something I need to know?” He eyed the way Kakashi knelt before him. Kakashi Hatake, one of his most loyal and hard working shinobi before him. It had been Kakashi who had found Iruka and Naruto and brought the traitor in to T&I.

“I was in to visit Iruka.” At the Hokage’s raised eyebrow Kakashi expanded. “I saw him with Naruto and knew he would be worried. We need him back at the Academy teaching.”

“That was very kind of you.”  
“I noticed something when I was leaving, but the nurses wouldn’t let me know about his treatment.”

“No that is for his next of kin.” Sarutobi didn’t let Kakashi know that Iruka had no next of kin being an orphan. “What did you see?”

“His chakra is disturbed, it felt off enough that I used the sharingan to take a look. I can’t be certain but something is coalescing around his wound. Does he have a kekkei genkai? Clan specialty?”

“Do you think Iruka knows?”

Kakashi took a minute before answering. “I think Iruka is too concerned about Naruto and the pain he is in right now before.”

“Thank you Kakashi, I will talk to Iruka and his doctors.” 

Kakashi took the dismissal for what it was.

Hiruzen leaned back in his chair, “Owl, would you please go and take a look at Iruka. See if you can pin point what it was that caught Kakashi’s attention.”

“Yes sir.” The ANBU operative gave a bow.

“Oh and Owl, let Iruka’s doctor’s know that I want to be kept up to date on his condition.”

“Yes sir.” The swirl of leaves was all that was left of the ANBU.

***

Hiruzen read the report in front of him and wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. In front of him was Owl and Dr Saeko. “So what is it that Kakashi noticed?”

“There is definitely something different about his tenketsu nodes.” Owl was the best one to explain, being a Hyuga the Byakugan was the best diagnostic tool they had. “His chakra paths have changed and I don’t understand why. There’s no real reason for it.”

“The nature of his injury doesn’t explain these changes.” Dr Saeko was perplexed. “What do you know of Umino’s background?” 

“Very little I’m afraid,” Sarutobi had gone back through admission papers the Umino family had submitted. Nothing had stood out. “Keshin Umino had been part of the entourage bringing Kushina Uzumaki here when she was a young girl. He stayed here making sure she was settled but was forbidden from interacting too much with her. He went back and forth between the villages. Just before the village fell he asked if he could bring his fiancée to village and applied to be Konoha citizen. They were married in Uzushio and were the last to make it out of the village alive that we know of. They claimed minor clan abilities from both sides. Keshin Umino is a very distant side branch of the Uzumaki family. He doesn’t have the chakra reserves needed for a jinchuriki, but did have some funijutsu knowledge. Kaiyo Umino had the ability to use something akin to echolocation. She was from a smaller ocean side village. From what I understand Iruka has some proficiency with the same jutsu. It allows him to identify people inside a set parameter and their chakra nature.” Sarutobi looked out his office window and over the village he loved so much, “both Keshin and Kaiyo Umino died in defending the village during the nine tails attack. Iruka was just a child at the time, in his second year at the academy. I was listed as his next of kin by proxy since upon their death, guardianship was to go to MInato and Kushina. He has been very frank with what he can and can not do.”

“How is he doing? Does the change int he chakra pathways seem to affect the rate at which he is healing?” Owl didn’t want to be interested, but he couldn’t deny that he was.

Dr Saeko shook his head, “nothing of the sort, his healing is on track and as long as he doesn’t over do it, he should be able to get back to work within a relatively short period of time.”

“Please keep me informed.” Sarutobi watched as Dr Saeko left the tower. “Owl I would also like you to keep an eye on Iruka in case anything changes in his condition. You’ll be reassigned temporarily until we understand what this means. If you have any other concerns come to me.”

“And Hatake?” 

“I’ll talk to him.” Sarutobi wasn’t sure what Kakashi attachment to Iruka was. As far as he knew they weren’t friends. They had only been on one mission together and that had ended with Iruka requesting a transfer off of active duty and becoming one of their most beloved academy teachers. Otherwise Naruto was the only other thing that connected them. He wasn’t sure what exactly it was that the sharingan saw, but if he told the man to stop all that would do would have Kakashi hide it from them. Kakashi could be a bit of a rogue but he’d rather have the man on his side.

Iruka’s back was itching, he figured it was the healing, the scar like his nose. He stay at the hospital had been pretty normal with the exception of having an ANBU guard. He had been released in time to hand out the team assignments, but had been back in the hospital for physical therapy. Being at home was more relaxing. As much as he wanted to scratch the middle of his back he wasn’t going to. He had two more months of leave before he could see if he was cleared to go back tot he academy. He was getting slightly bored. There was only so many technical manual he could read. The knock on his door was a welcome distraction.

“Kakashi, what a surprise.” Iruka opened the door for his favorite student’s new jonin sensei. “How’s Naruto doing? Sasuke? Sakura?”

Kakashi spent the next couple of hours regaling the teacher with the story of how the new team seven passed his infamous bell test.

“Thank you for letting me know.” Iruka stared down into his now empty tea cup.

“I’d like to stop by every once in a while if it’s alright with you,” Kakashi wasn’t quite sure how Iruka would take his request. “I’d like to get your advice from time to time on how to deal with Naruto and Sasuke. They are very similar in a lot of ways.”

“I can give you some tips, but you are not me and our teaching styles differ vastly.” Iruka was surprised and honored that someone of Kakashi’s caliber would ask him for advice. 

The meet ups for tea and conversation turned into Kakashi helping Iruka expand his physical therapy by introducing him back into training. It was during one of these training sessions that Kakashi brought up his change in chakra networks.

“So they never mentioned it?”

“No,” Iruka was confused, “I mean I thought it strange that I had an ANBU guard while in the hospital but I just put it down to T&I not being quite sure if I could be trusted after Mizuki had turned traitor, after all we had been friends.”

“Which ANBU? Do you know?” Kakashi knew that Iruka was more sensitive to chakra natures then others.

“Owl.”

Kakashi tilted his head slightly, Owl, he was a Hyuga. “What about your doctors?”

Iruka knew that Kakashi was a genius and there was something that he was missing. “Well they did do a lot of different tests, but I thought it was because of the location of injury.”

“I’m not sure because I never really paid attention to what your your chakra network looked like before and they look different to the sharingan, but that first day I came to see in the hospital something caught my attention. Even now your chakra network looks a little different, it still flows throughout your body but it seems to coil around your back in a strange way.”

“Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I’ll definitely bring it up with my doctor at my next visit. I want to understand what changed.” Iruka wasn’t really worried, but he was really curious.

Kakashi had hoped he hadn’t upset teacher. “Iruka if I may, can you show me your back?”

Iruka stripped off his shirt. He still had a bandage wrapped around his chest.

“Why the bandage? I thought you had healed?” Kakashi was worried that the wound was worse then Iruka had made it out to be.

“No but it itches against my clothing. Dr Saeko said I could keep it wrapped so as not to irritate the scar tissue as it heals.” He unwrapped the bandage, folding it carefully to use it after Kakashi looked his fill.

“Fuck, Iruka!” Kakashi’s fingers grazed the edges of his back, “when was the last time anyone has looked at your back?”

“It’s been a week. Why? What wrong?” Iruka was freaking out. Had the wound festered or gotten infected? What was it that Kakashi saw?

“I don’t know how to say this, but you have feathers coming out of your back.” Kakashi was amazed.

“Feathers? Don’t fuck with Kakashi.”

“I’m not. It reminds me of wings.” Kakashi gently massaged either side of the original wound. It really did remind him of wings, or of wings trying to push their way out of a cocoon. Man Shibi Aburame would flip just to see this. 

Iruka was freaking out internally. Wings? What the fuck did Kakashi mean he had wings? Unconsciously he was stretching his back to let his friend have greater access to his back. The pressure on the edges of the scar tissue felt so good, like a scratch he could finally reach. There was popping sound and Kakashi fell to the ground.

There stretching out behind him were a pair of feather wings. The must have been about two meters in lengths and looked very much like falcon wings. The feathers were a pale gray in colour and he found that he could move them without real thought.

“Son of a bitch, what the hell!” Iruka spun around to get a better look. Which when he was able to stop and think was stupid because the wings were on his back and he couldn’t see his own back. “Kakashi?!” His voice rose in panic and fear.

Kakashi stood, his face the picture of awe, his fingers gently ran over the top of the left wing. He watched as Iruka shuddered under the touch. “You can feel that?”

“Yeah, it’s a little ticklish.” Iruka shrugged his shoulder and the wing moved.

“Do that again,” Kakashi demanded.

Iruka shrugged and moved seeing if he could control the wings that were now seemingly apart of his body. 

Kakashi chased him around the training ground slowly at first then faster as he gained more confidence with his control of the new appendages. On a hunch Kakashi tossed a kunai at Iruka and he used the wing flick it aside. With a smirk he turned the ground beneath Iruka’s feet into quicksand and smiled as Iruka beat his wings to lift himself into the air.

“So you can fly.” 

The shocked look on Iruka’s face last moments before the teacher started to over think things and crashed to the ground. “What am I going to do? I can’t teach with these, I’d be a danger to the classroom. Hell I don’t think I’ll even fit in my apartment and I certainly don’t want to spend the rest of my life needing to walk around the village shirtless.”

Kakashi thought there might be a way to work around all of that if Iruka really wanted to, but could understand that the chunin was scared. He helped Iruka to his feet and stood behind him. “Look right now we know what the strange chakra in your back was.” He tried to calm Iruka down. “What we need to figure out is if this is something from your family or something that was introduced into your system.” 

During their regular meet ups Kakashi had learned about Iruka’s family and that like himself and Naruto, Iruka had grown up an orphan. The pair had also learned through Kakashi’s ANBU contacts that Mizuki had confessed to working with Orochimaru for years and had planed to take Naruto to him for experimentation.

“Kakashi, I hate to ask but my back right near the base of the wings is really itchy.” Iruka blushed as he made the request.

“I got you sensei.” The eye smile almost got him a smack to the head, but the itch was worse and Iruka figured that he’d get the copy ninja later.

Kakashi massaged the base of the wings, the skin looking red and inflamed so he didn’t want to irritate it more by scratching it. Working his hands a little further out, it seemed he hit a magic button as all of a sudden he wings folded in upon themselves and pulled back into Iruka’s scar leaving no trace they had ever been there.

“Well shit.” Kakashi wished he had his sharingan activated and could have watched that. It might have given Iruka some answers. “I guess you don’t need to worry about going around the village shirtless now.” the quip was about all he could think of to say.

“I guess not.” Iruka didn’t know which was more disconcerting. Having wings or having them disappear into your body. “Either way I may need to request your presence when I try to explain this to Dr Saeko and Lord Third.”

“Let’s sleep on it first.” Kakashi lead Iruka back to his apartment.

“I’m scared Kakashi, I don’t know what this means. I don’t remember either of my parents having wings or them even talking about it.”

Kakashi snooped through Iruka’s cupboards to make him a cup of tea, later he’d make supper. He wasn’t letting the man out of his sight right now for anything, just in case he went and did something stupid. “Hey, I’m not going anywhere. We’ll figure this out together.”


End file.
